The Great American Road Trip

Aaron and I have always wanted to go as a family to see Mt Rushmore.  So, this summer we made a road trip to South Dakota!  It was about a 7 hour drive from our home in Colorado.  Here are some pictures of the things we got to see and do.

Mt Rushmore was so amazing in person.  These pictures do not do it justice.  I had always wanted to go and it was everything I thought it would be and more!  There is so much detail in the carving of each of their faces.  It was so fun to take our kids to see it.  Every single one of us loved it!  It was fun that Dallon was old enough to have heard of it in school and he'd seen it on tv...  so he really appreciated getting to see it in person and really enjoyed it!  We went on a hike on the trails there and it was so fun to see different views of Mt Rushmore.  Oh, and they had the biggest, bestest ice cream cones there ever!

We went on the Alpine Slide right there by Mt Rushmore.  The kids loved riding the lift up the mtn.  Dallon was crazy daring and went down the slide full speed and he wrecked on the way down.  On one of the turns the sled flipped out from under him and he really tore up his elbow and knee bad!!!  He was so tough...  but it was very painful for him that day and for weeks to come.  When we went into the store at bottom of slide to use their first aid kit I bought Dallon this shirt while Aaron doctored him up.

We went to see Crazy Horse.  It was so neat.  The kids really liked it and were so interested in learning about it.  It is a work in progress.  They have been working on it for 60 years and will be blasting and carving the rest of it for another 50 more years.  It is of an indian riding a horse.  Right now they have the face and top of arm done.

We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at our hotel and saw that there was a water slide by the pool!  We had booked this hotel because Aaron has traveled so  much with USAA lately that he had hotel points and it was not going to cost us anything to stay during this trip.  So, we really didn't look into what the hotel had to offer because for us it was our only choice.  It was so awesome!  The kids swam and played on the water slide every morning and every night.  It was definitely one of the high lights of the trip.

We went to Bear Country USA.  It was ok.  It had been highly recommended to us, but it was a very hot day and the bears were really just laying around.

Custer State Park was so great!  Definitely a family favorite along with Mt Rushmore and the water slide at the pool!  We drove all around Custer State Park looking at the wildlife there.  There were so many Buffalo.  I have never seen that many Buffalo ever...  and they were right up next to our car.  The kids took turns riding with their head out of the sun roof just soaking it up!  There was a donkey that really wanted to eat dawson's sucker which to this day still makes us laugh.  It was so funny.  And there were beautiful tunnels carved into the mtn's there that you would drive thru and as you drove thru each one you could see Mt Rushmore!  It was so neat!  South Dakota is so beautiful.

The kids think this picture is so funny!  ha ha.